DEADLINE TODAY: 2014 Healthcare Insurance Enrollment

Monday, March 31st is the last day to start your sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Those who sign up by 11:59 p.m. will be covered by health insurance by May 1st.

The deadline day has gotten off to a bit of a rough start . The Obama administration announced early Monday morning that Healthcare.gov was down for maintenance and wouldn’t be available for use until after 8 a.m. Eastern time. They gave no explanation of why the site was taken into maintenance on the final day for insurance sign-ups for 2014, however the site did return to working order as the online portal for healthcare sign-ups. The latest reports indicate that heavy traffic on the site is causing some delays, so the administrators instituted a queuing system to prevent a crash.

Do not be deterred. Locally, you can still get help from enrollment sites such as Eskenazi Health (just west of downtown Indy off West 10th Street at 702 Eskenazi Avenue). Eskenazi Health will do enrollments from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. or by calling the local healthcare navigator hotline at 1-855-202-1053. The hotline will be open until 7:00 p.m.

Anyone wanting to sign-up for a healthcare plan will be granted an extension as long as they begin signing up by 11:59 Monday night.